Wulf yeast factory

Wulf yeast factory around 1900

The Wulf yeast factory was located on Steinerstrasse in Werl in the Soest district ( North Rhine-Westphalia ). The 60-meter-high chimney shaped the townscape and determined the silhouette of the place.

history

View of a part of the former factory site with today's use

The origin of the company was in 1897 a small distillery that distilled the Alten Wulf , a high-proof spirit , as well as other spirits, liqueurs, brandies , brandies and spirits of all kinds. The delivery program also included mills, malt , fruit juices, animal feed, nutrients and chemical products . A by-product of the distillery was yeast , it was advertised as baker's yeast with excellent leavening power, color and shelf life , with considerable success. Twenty years after the company was founded, a new yeast ventilation process had increased the quality to such an extent that 300,000 pounds of yeast and 260,000 liters of alcohol were sold in a year. At the beginning of the 20th century, the turnover increased to one million kg and shortly afterwards to 2.2 million kg. When the company founder Fritz Wulf died unexpectedly in 1903, who was also the school director and city councilor, he became a businessman of rare workforce in an obituary , Energy and caution . The management of the company was taken over by his wife Clara Wulf, she was 55 years old. She had a modern production and administration site built at Reichsstrasse 1, also known as Chaussee (today's B1 ). The eight-story boiler house, workshops, blacksmiths, a malt house and a 60-meter-high chimney were at times considered the tallest brick building in Europe. In 1909 the output of yeast was 2,650 tons, the production of drinking brandy was 21,000 hectoliters, and pure alcohol was 25,000 hectoliters. Thus Wulf-Hefe had grown to become the largest distillery and the leading company in the yeast industry in Germany.

Share over RM 100 in Norddeutsche Hefeindustrie AG from September 1927

The pressed yeast factory was an important industrial establishment of the time and was the most important industrial settlement in the area until the early 20th century. In 1909 it was converted into F. Wulf AG . Clara Wulf took over the chairmanship and appointed her eldest son Paul as an executive board member. Over time, the Schultheiß brewery developed into a new major shareholder and intervened heavily in business policy. Paul Wulf had to leave the board, and the personnel decisions were made by Schultheiss in the future. The Wulf company expanded and took over the Oedekoven chemical factory, the S. Oppenheimer yeast factory in Niedermarsberg with a branch in Düsseldorf, and the brewery in Dessau. In 1926 Ostwerke AG and Ferd came along. Rückforth AG added, the company was now called F. Wulf AG Berlin. A year later, the company was converted to Norddeutsche Hefeindustrie AG , which was then taken over by Henkel in Düsseldorf in 1934 . Later, a group led by the Stuttgart bank Frisch and the Süddeutsche Treuhandgesellschaft AG took over the entire Nordhefe share ownership, which until then had been owned by the Schultheiss brewery.

The company's headquarters were relocated from Berlin to Hamburg in 1948 , and from 1961 onwards the company was called Deutsche Hefewerke GmbH (today Ohly GmbH ). The company buildings in Werl survived the Second World War largely unscathed, but the disposal of the organically heavily polluted wastewater produced during production was difficult. At the end of the 1960s, the company's management decided to relocate production to Hamburg and close the works in Werl, production was discontinued. Most recently, the factory supplied yeast for around 100 million rolls a week, it was sold a few times or merged with other companies. The buildings were demolished in 1971 and replaced by a shopping center and residential development in 1998.

Villa Wulf

Villa Wulf, the former home of the Wulf family in Werl

The former residential building of Fritz Wulf, the listed Villa Wulf, stands in the south of the historic city center, in direct proximity to the factory. It was built in 1850 by the Adam Brune family as a two-story neo-baroque building. Wulf acquired it around 1890 and his family expanded it to include a bay window on the east side, a winter garden on the west side and a commercial and residential wing. The roof was raised and expanded. The seven-axis symmetrical facade is structured by a central projection, a semicircular porch stands in the two axes on the left side. The splendid decorations on the facade and the windows have largely been preserved. The complex is an example of the sophisticated home decor of a wealthy industrialist of the Wilhelmine era; Wulf was one of the richest citizens of the city.